A Duke by Default

June 1, 2018

Portia Hobbs has the internship of a lifetime--apprenticing as a swordmaker at a Scottish estate, under the tutelage of gruff yet sexy Tavish MacKenzie. While the attraction is instant, Portia has sworn off men as part of her quest to get her life together, making Tav off limits. Portia drags Tavish and the armory into the 21st century with her social media savvy, and Tavish helps Portia discover that she's not the hot mess she always thought she was. VERDICT Portia is a sharp, mature protagonist whose quest for self-improvement will resonate with readers (as will her issues with comparing herself to others)--and who can resist a cranky Scot? Cole's star continues to rise, and readers will be eager for more.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 11, 2018
In Cole’s rollicking second Reluctant Royals contemporary (after A Princess in Theory), Portia Hobbs leaves New York for Scotland and a sword-making apprenticeship, determined to recreate herself and her life. However, “Project New Portia” takes a hit when she finds herself wrong-footed with her new boss, Tavis McKenzie, on the first day. Tavis doesn’t want an apprentice, especially not one whose freckles and curves set his mind to wandering lustfully. But Portia’s talents soon prove to be exactly what Tavis’s business needs, and when Tavis admits there’s more to her than sexy good looks, the smoldering tension between them explodes with a fiery kiss. As Portia slowly begins to see herself as more than a flighty screw-up, she sets in motion events that change Tavis’s future—and that may just push her out of his life for good. Cole includes just the right amount of sass, sex, and heart to satisfy romance readers. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary.

July 1, 2018
A rude sword maker clashes with the spunky socialite who has been sent to drag him into the 21st century.Portia Hobbs' hard-charging parents can't understand why she prefers acquiring graduate degrees and internships to joining the family business in New York. When she wins an internship to work with a master swordsmith in Scotland, Portia knows it's a perfect way to put her art history background to good use. Where her parents see flighty selfishness, Portia sees opportunity and excitement. Her new boss, Tavish McKenzie, is a taciturn silver fox with a healthy skepticism of modernity. He's gruff with Portia, who nevertheless manages to wield her social media and marketing savvy to raise Bodotria Armory's profile. Portia is a charming blend of bravado and insecurity, a woman whose summer in Scotland will reveal her innate worth even if her skills are not the kind her family can appreciate. A brusque British artisan falling for a spoiled, spunky American is a familiar trope, but Cole (A Princess in Theory, 2018, etc.) invests it with complexity by giving Portia not just vulnerability, but a journey of self-discovery that includes strong female friendships. Another well-known romance trope, secret royalty, gets the same treatment. Tav's mother was a Chilean refugee when she began an affair with his biological father, whom she left after he inherited a dukedom. Tav had always known the story, but he thought of his mother as a victim of a powerful man; learning now that she'd made her own choices, he has to make sense of a new origin story while grappling with an abrupt status shift from artisan to aristocrat. While Portia and Tav's characters are irresistible and their culture-clash repartee is genuinely witty, their romance seems abrupt. A continued friendship with benefits seems just as likely as a happy-ever-after for these two, and while their relationship might eventually develop into something lasting, readers might appreciate a cameo by "Maid Freckles" and "#swordbae" in the next installment of the series, just to be sure.An engaging cast of characters grapples with themes from family legacies to social media marketing while the romance between a gruff swordsmith and his unorthodox apprentice is more parry than attack.

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Starred review from June 1, 2018
Project New Portia is designed to relieve Portia Hobbs of her hot messiness and prevent unflattering comparisons to her twin sister, Reggie. Her plans are nearly derailed when, arriving at Scotland's Bodotria Armory for her apprenticeship, she mistakes a fighting demonstration for the real thing and jumps in wielding a can of Mace. The alleged assailant is Tavish McKenzie, master-at-arms and her new boss. Tavish is not interested in Portia's suggestions for increasing the armory's online presence and revenue, especially since they involve the hashtag #swordbae. When he relents, Portia dives in head first, only to discover that the man who left Tavish's Chilean refugee mother before Tavish was born was actually the Duke of Edinburgh. Raised by his beloved Haitian stepfather, Tavish has no desire to claim his birthright, no matter how appealing Portia makes it sound. The sexual tension crackles as Portia and Tavish hide their attraction behind sarcasm, but the real emotional punch comes when they admit their feelings but need to decide if each really has a place in the other's life. With a multicultural cast and delightfully geeky details (Cheryl Hu, Tavish's sister-in-law, runs a food truck called Doctor Hu's), Cole's (A Hope Divided, 2017) latest is pretty much perfect.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)